Conventionally, a card reader has been widely utilized which is structured to perform reading of data recorded on a card and/or recording of data to a card. In an industry such as a financial institution where a card reader is utilized, illegal acquisition of a card by a criminal who intentionally clogs the card inside the card reader and then pulls out the card from a card insertion port, i.e., so-called phishing has been a large issue. Therefore, conventionally, a card reader having a prevention mechanism for preventing phishing has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
The card reader described in Patent Literature 1 includes a shutter which is movable between a position where a card conveying passage is closed and a position where the card conveying passage is opened, a shutter detection mechanism which detects an open position of the shutter, and an abnormal stop detection mechanism structured to detect an abnormal stop of the card. The abnormal stop detection mechanism is a plurality of card detection mechanisms structured to detect existence/absence of a card in a card conveying passage. Further, in the card reader, the prevention mechanism includes a needle, which is contacted with a surface of a card with a predetermined pressure or is stuck into the card, and a solenoid for operating the needle.
In the card reader described in Patent Literature 1, when an abnormal stop of a card is detected by the abnormal stop detection mechanism, if it is detected by the shutter detection mechanism that the shutter opens the card conveying passage, the solenoid is activated and the needle is contacted with a predetermined pressure with the surface of the card or is stuck into the card. Therefore, in the card reader, pulling-out of the card from a card insertion port by a criminal can be prevented and, as a result, illegal acquisition of the card by the criminal can be prevented.